Great caution was therefore needed, and everything was done that could be devised to allay the popular mistrust. Vast preparations were made before a single stone of the old building was removed, and two years were spent in bringing together all the materials; 1000 waggons were constructed for the purpose of bearing stones for the building, and upwards of 10,000 of the most skilful workmen, superintended by 1000 Levites, who had been taught the arts of carpentry and stone-cutting, were employed on the works[113].
In the 20th year of Herod’s reign, or B.C. 18, the erection of the new structure began. The foundations of the Temple of Zorobabel were removed, and on those laid by Solomon the new pile arose, built of hard white stones of enormous size. The Porch, Holy Place, and Holy of Holies, were completed in a year and a half[114]; the rest of the pile, with the courts and cloisters, in eight years more, so as to be fit for the actual services of religion, but the whole structure was not finally completed[115] till A.D. 65[116].
On the highest level of the rocky platform stood the Temple itself, divided as in the days of Solomon, and covered with plates of gold, which shone like a meteor under the rays of the sun, so that the eye could hardly bear to rest upon them. Twelve steps below was a second level, occupied by the Court of the Priests, with the Great Laver, and the Altar of Burnt-offering. Three flights of steps below this was the Court of the Israelites, with the houses of the priests, the various offices, and hall of the Sanhedrin. Fourteen steps more led down to the Court of the Gentiles, which was hardly regarded as a part of the Temple, and was open to men of all nations and became a kind of exchange and market-place.
While the Sanctuary had been left to the care of the priests, Herod exhausted all his taste on this Court of the Gentiles. “Cloisters ran round the wall on the inner side, sustained on rows of columns exquisitely wrought, the capitals being ornamented with the acanthus and waterleaf, as in the famous Tower of the Winds. West, north, and east these columns were in three rows; on the south they were in four. The floor made a shaded walk, like the colonnade in Venice, and the roof an open walk like the gallery of Genoa. The pavement was inlaid with marbles of many colours. Leading into this Court from the city and the country were many noble gates; one of these on the Eastern side, facing the Mount of Olives, was called Solomon’s Porch, and a second near by it was called the Beautiful Gate[117].”
Immediately after the completion of the Sanctuary, which was commemorated with lavish sacrifices and splendid feasts[118], Herod set out for Rome, to bring back his sons Alexander and Aristobulus. On his arrival in the imperial city[119], he was received by Augustus with every mark of regard, and returned with his two sons apparently in the spring of the year B.C. 15. During the autumn his friend Agrippa visited Judæa[120], and Herod shewed him his new cities, Sebaste and Cæsarea, and the fortresses of Alexandrium, Herodium, and Hyrcania. Then conducting him to Jerusalem, he entertained him at a sumptuous banquet, while the people welcomed the great minister of Augustus with acclamations, and Agrippa offered a sacrifice of 100 oxen in the Temple, and feasted the subjects of the Jewish king at a splendid entertainment.
CHAPTER VI.
HEROD, KING OF JUDÆA.
B.C. 15–4.
BUT the return of the young princes, Alexander and Aristobulus, from Rome was the signal for a scene of bloodshed, still more awful than that which had darkened the beginning of Herod’s reign.
The monarch married them, Alexander to Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia; Aristobulus to Berenice, the daughter of his sister Salome[121]. The grace and beauty of the young men, added to their descent through their mother from the great Asmonean house, made them objects of the utmost interest to the people, and they were regarded as the future rulers of Palestine.
The popular favour, however, which they thus attracted, aroused the keenest hatred of Salome and Pheroras. Conscious of the part they had played in the execution of Mariamne, they looked with dismay at the future elevation of the young princes. Taking advantage, therefore, of some incautious expressions they chanced to let fall respecting the execution of their mother, they began by circulating rumours that the young men were bent on avenging their mother’s death, and bore no goodwill towards the king. For some time Herod refused even to listen to these rumours. But before long they acquired fresh strength and consistency, and to check their pride, he sent for Antipater, the son of his first wife Doris, and set him up as a foil to the aspirations and popularity of Alexander and Aristobulus[122].